Different ways
with aburage

This week's recipes come courtesy of two familiar faces from days gone by -- Hari Kojima and Lucky Luck.

Karol Yamamoto e-mailed in search of a recipe for aburage (bean curd wrappers) stuffed with somen noodles that she'd had at a potluck.

A search of cookbooks and an Internet exploration turned up just one suitable recipe, at www.suresave.com, the Web site of Sure Save Super Market on the Big Island, which maintains recipes from Kojima's old "Hari's Kitchen" television show.

It is a refreshing combination of local flavors.

Offering another way with aburage is Robert M. "Lucky" Luck. A photocopy of "Lucky Luck's Favorite Island Recipes," dated 1953, arrived in the mail last week, passed on by an acquaintance in Los Angeles.

Luck was a popular entertainer of the time who dabbled in many endeavors, cooking among them. His Stuffed Aburage is a more traditional pork-and-tofu combination.

Note that the somen recipe uses prepared, seasoned bean curd wrapper, the type sold to make cone sushi. The second uses plain aburage, sold refrigerated in Asian markets.